{"id":21912,"date":"2018-05-28T09:01:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T09:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/318618"},"modified":"2018-05-28T09:01:00","modified_gmt":"2018-05-28T09:01:00","slug":"how-the-omensight-devs-stay-on-budget-make-games-quickly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/05\/28\/how-the-omensight-devs-stay-on-budget-make-games-quickly\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Omensight devs stay on budget: Make games quickly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Game development can be a long, arduous process. Triple-A games can take years to produce, even with team sizes in the hundreds; with a smaller team, the development cycle can take even longer. Just look at<\/span> Owlboy<\/em>, the indie platformer that took nine years to develop or, on the other side of things, Duke Nukem Forever<\/em>, which took 15 for various reasons.<\/p>\n

Spearhead Games didn\u2019t have years. Luckily the studio\u2019s made a habit of creating games with a quick turnaround. Its latest game,<\/span> Omensight<\/em><\/a>, somehow hit platforms after just 18 months of development time, according to co-founder Malik Boukhira. Its previous title, Stories: The Path of Destinies<\/em>, was made in 11 months. Taking it one step further, the team that worked these titles never exceeded more than 20 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a reputation for being super fast,\u201d Boukhira revealed in a recent stream on Gamasutra.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Spearhead has that reputation, Boukhira explained that it\u2019s in spite of (and really, because of) small budgets. When you have limited funds to work with, it pays (no pun intended) to cut down on production time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the big reasons why we do games quickly is because at some point we run out of money. We have limited budgets so we have to do the most out of these budgets,\u201d he said. \u201cWith the budget we have we try to be as smart as possible in how we create a good game.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So what does that entail? Boukhira laid out how the studio cut corners, but still managed to engage with smart design. With<\/span> Omensight<\/em>, Spearhead created a game that was ready to ship and that they were proud of.<\/p>\n

Reuse assets<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Omensight<\/span><\/em> tells the tale of a powerful mage and warrior that experiences the end of the world. However, he has the chance to stop it by solving a murder mystery. With magic, hand-to-hand combat, and time manipulation, you can learn about the experiences of the dead while also visiting familiar locations.<\/p>\n

\n
“One of the big reasons why we do games quickly is because at some point we run out of money.”<\/span><\/h6>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Boukhira said that one of the main things the studio did to save money was to reuse environments and other assets. Backtracking is common in games and developers use a lot of similar tricks to cut down on production time and funding, but a lot of thought has to go into how the assets are used.<\/span><\/p>\n

For its previous game,<\/span> Stories<\/em>, Spearhead also reused assets, mainly by having players return to familiar locations, but the issue was that the studio didn\u2019t do enough to ensure it felt exciting. Boukhira admitted that it felt repetitive to the player, which in a way exposed their trick.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t break the experience except, at some point, by playing it a few times you start to realize \u2018this is the same place again,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAt first you don\u2019t realize, but the problem with<\/span> Stories<\/em> is the more you play it, the more that trick is revealed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So for<\/span> Omensight<\/em>, the team wanted to solve that problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can we make something that’s reusable, replayable in a way that’s still interesting and in such a way that we can optimize every hour we put in \u2026 without having to create a lot of unique content?\u201d he asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because of the game\u2019s more open structure, which is essential if the player wants to feel like they have control over solving the mystery, Spearhead ensured that each path felt important and had a different outcome. There are a limited number of narrative branches, but each is designed so players are incentivized\u00a0to try new routes and uncover new details. So even if the player had to go back to a previous location, there was variation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s one of the challenges: make things that are versatile enough that they don’t feel repetitive without being [an asset] that\u2019s super expensive but yet you only see once,\u201d he explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

A basic and purposeful art style<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Boukhira gave a lot of credit to his art team for how they managed to create a distinct and appealing aesthetic without using a ton of money.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Omensight<\/em> looks like a graphic novel come to life, so the colors are vibrant but the environments are generally monotone and flat. The characters are detailed, but are mostly seen from a semi top-down view.<\/p>\n

\n
“We control how much you can see and that saves 30-40 percent of our bandwidth when we’re making the game.”<\/span><\/h6>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s when you look closer that you can see the purposeful design. There are textures on the environments, but just enough to give the player a vision of rocks, or another material. Grass dots the landscape, but it isn\u2019t overwhelming. It\u2019s there just enough to support the idea of grass. This was all done to save money, but you couldn\u2019t tell just by looking at it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Boukhira said that the his art director came from a graphic novel background, but that didn\u2019t completely impact the style.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s also a style that can be very cool, very expressive without requiring super detailed meshes and textures,” he added.\u00a0“It can still be very expressive and very fun to explore at the same time.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Smart camera movement<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The player can control the camera in<\/span> Omensight<\/em> a bit, but for the most part, the game takes the reins. This is so the player knows where they need to go and what they need to observe, but it\u2019s also a sneaky way to save time and energy. If you don\u2019t have to animate an entire space, then that will save you time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWell first thing to know is if you don’t have a free camera you don’t have to art every angle in the world,\u201d Boukhira said, pointing out some examples on the stream. \u201cSo you can\u2019t see the ceiling in the room, nor can you see behind you and that’s a trick to save art time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But as with reusing assets, Boukhira emphasized making sure that the choice seems purposeful. In<\/span> Omensight<\/em>, the camera, while out of the player\u2019s control, does give the game a cinematic feel, which the developers liked. It also allows the player to see what they need to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you can see, it’s still interesting from a visual perspective. It’s more cinematic because we control the point of view,\u201d he said. \u201cWe control how much you can see and that saves 30-40 percent of our bandwidth when we’re making the game.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With a small budget and small team, Spearhead Games needs to cut corners somewhere. However, what sets them apart from other obviously low-budget games, and what garnered their reputation for speed, is that each move — whether it\u2019s not animating a whole scene or reusing assets — doesn\u2019t distract from the game. It\u2019s all done to enhance the game, not just to hit a monetary goal.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the best part? When a player doesn\u2019t notice.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Game development can be a long, arduous process. Triple-A games can take years to produce, even with team sizes in the hundreds; with a smaller team, the development cycle can take even longer. Just look at Owlboy, the indie platformer that took nine years to develop or, on the other side of things, Duke Nukem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}